“Have found a foothold”: this Romand is fascinated by the cannibals in the Andes. Fighters from the Azov steel plant are free – the emotional end of a prisoner of war

Stéphane Barbier, Netflix just released a movie (“The Snow Company”) about the plane crash in the Andes that killed rugby players and forced the survivors to eat human flesh. You’ve known this story for a long time.
Yes. It all started by chance in 1994. I was unemployed and feeling a bit irritated. I went to a bookstore in Neuchâtel where I came across a book about the plane crash (“Survival” by Piers Paul Read). I read the summary and became curious about the sequel. I opened the book that same evening and never put it down.

What happened next?
Coincidentally, the film ‘Survival’ (by Frank Marshall), the film adaptation of the book, was in cinemas at the same time. I immediately looked at him. Then the years passed until 2006, when one of the survivors, Fernando Parrado, wrote his story in a book called ’72 Days in Hell’. Naturally, I read it in one sitting, the first time and a second time in 2013. The book contained a sketch of the scene of the accident. I tried to use Google Maps to find the exact spot where the rugby players crashed.

Was it difficult to find this place online?
Not so much. I followed the Argentinian-Chilean border until I found the same terrain described in the book. Then I noticed a detail: I saw a path, a path, zigzagging towards the crash site. I thought to myself: if there is a way, then it is possible to get there.

When did you make the decision to go there?
During my online research, I came across a Facebook group where followers of this story met. I asked a simple question in Spanish:

One person answered me in French: “Viens et on y va ensemble” (Come and we go together). It was the navigator (ed.: person who helps the pilot with various tasks and is responsible for navigation, among other things), who was actually supposed to be on the plane of the Uruguayan rugby players, but was booked on a different flight every week before the trip was over. been. The opportunity was too good and I accepted his suggestion. Although I was aware that the purpose of my trip was not to get answers about the accident, but to get an idea of ​​the place where it happened.

If you had read a book about Napoleon, would you have traveled to the island of St Helena, where the deposed emperor was imprisoned?
Not at all! (laughs) I have no interest in Napoleon. But the catastrophe in the Andes did. Partly because I’ve always been passionate about aviation, and partly because this drama is about surviving in a hostile environment and what people are willing to do to save their skins.

So they arrived on the scene in February 2015. What happened next?
I was met by the navigator as planned and then we left in a small group with a guide. We drove for two days to reach the crash site at 3600 meters. We stayed there for four days exploring the area and the glacier in front of it. We camped on site.

What surprised you most when you arrived?
The beauty of the place. It’s just beautiful. And at the same time it is very hostile. There are no plants, no animals. Nothing.

You soon discover debris from the plane. Yes. One wing, one landing gear, one engine. At that moment I felt like I was being catapulted into history. This became even more pronounced when I saw human remains. One foot, one finger. We took them and buried them near the grave that had been built there.

How did it feel to see all that?
It shocked me a bit, that’s for sure. But being there also allowed me to understand the circumstances under which the survivors survived and how they got to this point.

“Until now” is a reserved way of talking about cannibalism.
Yes. Most of all, people remembered that the survivors had to feed on the human flesh of their dead comrades.

By the way, one of the big questions in this drama is…
(interrupts) What would we have done in her place?

That’s right. And what would you have done?
I really asked myself this question when I arrived in the Andes. And given the situation, given where they were, I can say very clearly: I would have done the same. They had nothing to eat but rocks and snow, and it was a matter of survival.

A question that comes up again and again is whether it is a miracle or a tragedy. Depending on which side you are on: the side of the survivors or the side of the missing.
In each case. By the way, the name of the disaster museum in Montevideo, which I was allowed to visit, mentions “the miracle and tragedy of the Andes”.

What is your opinion on this subject?
To me, it’s a tragedy in which a series of miracles took place: surviving the crash was one thing, staying alive another, and finding help was another.

You were able to understand this last miracle on the spot.
Yes. To understand it, you need to know that we took the easiest route to the crash site from the east. If the two rugby players who went for help had chosen this route, they would not have survived and the entire group would have died. Because in the east there is a river that you have to cross about ten times. The Uruguayans would never have reached the nearest village, almost 70 km away.

So they chose the right side without knowing it.
Not entirely unconsciously, because they decided to fly west because the co-pilot had told them that they had left the city of Curicó behind them. In the eyes of Fernando Parrado, Chile lay in the west. And assuming he would arrive in the green plains of Chile, he made his choice.

Much has been said or written about this tragedy. Is there any aspect of the disaster that you believe has not yet been addressed?
(thinks) No, I don’t think so. I also see this in the Facebook group of people interested in the case: the same questions are asked again and again and of course the same answers are given. We went through the whole story.